Marbella town hall removes huge 'unprecedented' quantity of invasive seaweed from its beaches over Easter

The San Pedro Alcántara, Nueva Andalucía, Fontanilla, Venus, El Cable and Cabopino beaches were the worst affected by the brown algae

María Albarral

Marbella

Tuesday, 22 April 2025, 14:34

Marbella town hall is taking measures to tackle the invasion of seaweed on its beaches and cleared two tonnes of the invasive brown algae Rugulopteryx okamurae during Holy Week alone. "We have removed more than two tonnes of algae from the beaches this Easter without any institutional support," said the councillor responsible for beaches, Diego López.

He added, "Marbella cannot cope alone with a problem of this magnitude and it is incomprehensible that we continue to receive no financial or technical support from any regional or state administration," and went on to say, "The volume is so great that it escapes any reasonable forecast. What we are experiencing this year is unprecedented."

The San Pedro Alcántara, Nueva Andalucía, Fontanilla, Venus, El Cable and Cabopino beaches have been the worst affected. To contain this environmental emergency, the town hall deployed a daily cleaning operation from 3am until 10am, the latest time at which heavy machinery must leave the beaches for safety reasons.

The councillor told SUR, "We are assuming an expense that does not correspond to us, because this algae problem is not exclusive to Marbella, but to the entire Andalusian coast and the state. However, we still have no response from the competent authorities."

The problem of invasive seaweed is a serious problem for the town, not only from an environmental point of view but also from a tourism point of view. "Not only is our local economy at risk, but also the ecological balance of our coasts. The damage to marine biodiversity is already a reality, and we still don't see a regional or state plan that seriously tackles the problem," López concluded.

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